Halsey’s Beauty Routine and Makeup Tips

At the start of 2017, Halsey says she made three goals: do an arena tour (happening), have her sophomore album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom hit number one on Billboard (done), and land a major beauty collaboration. She’s now fulfilling the last of those wishes with YSL Beauty, which just announced she will be working with them in a way you never see celebrities partner with brands—as a makeup artist.

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See, despite having access to any professionals she’d like, Halsey insists on doing her own makeup for red carpets, on stage, and for photoshoots. And, she’s damn good at it. As part of her collaboration, she’ll be creating her own makeup looks using the brand’s products and sharing beauty tips with her 6.5 million+ followers on Instagram on a monthly basis.

“Being able to do my own makeup myself has brought me to autonomy and self love,” she tells ELLE.com. “This is me. This is what I look like. I’m happy with that I don’t want to change that.”

She kicked off her partnership at the amFAR Gala in New York, where we met her backstage. Her ever-changing hair was Marilyn Monroe-blonde, her lips were scarlet red, and her barely-there “naked” Julien MacDonald dress sparkled blindingly. Despite looking like a goddess, she was totally down to earth, introducing herself as “Ashley” (her real name), doling out hugs, and divulging her favorite NYC pizza recommendations (Roberta’s in Williamsburg—you’re welcome).

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Ahead, Halsey shares some tips she’s learned, including the lipstick that stays put through a concert performance, the icons who inspire her approach to beauty, and what she means by a “don’t fuck with me” eye makeup look.

1. She’s learned to embrace minimalist makeup.

“I’ve learned less is more. I’ve done red carpets where I’ve piled and piled foundation on my face and hated the way that I looked. I’ve done red carpets where I’ve been wearing nothing but a BB cream or YSL Touche Eclat under my eyes and around my nose to brighten my face.I’m 23 years old—my skin just being in itself is sometimes nicer than piling on makeup.

When I’m not on tour, I don’t really wear that much makeup. I wear brow gel and BB cream and maybe mascara. I love a fresh, dewy face during the day. Because I’m wearing so much makeup all the time my skin needs to breathe. I could also afford to drink more water too but I’m bad at that.”

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2. She looks to the past for inspiration.

“I love Linda Evangelista. Like her, I have short hair I have a very big, strong face. I think I really hated that when I was growing up—it wasn’t soft and cute, but now I love it because it makes for the best canvas to do makeup on. I reference a lot of old, early Madonna as well. I love Edie Sedgwick.”

3. She does her own makeup to celebrate herself.

“I’m a musician and my fans have fallen in love with the person that I am—I want to look like that person. Sometimes [makeup artists] come in and they change my face. It’s hard to be under ridicule of someone else—strangers looking at your face all the time and deciding they don’t like your eyebrows, or that your lips are too thin, or deciding to change all these things about you because they just want to. That can get in your head. A huge part of makeup for me is learning to accept my face is my face. It’s the face I was given and it is the face that I have and I can use makeup as a tool to enhance and celebrate the parts of my face that I love, because this is the face I got.”

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4. She doesn’t like to be “prim and proper” with her makeup on stage.

“My stage I look is far more theatrical. Part of being on stage and the history of theater has been that makeup—defining your eyes and defining your lips so that the crowd can actually see your expression.I’m a pretty aggressive performer. I’m sweating. I’m rubbing my hands across my face and jumping in the crowd and fans are clawing at me. It’s good to have something very, very, very long-wear so the All Hours Full Coverage Matte Foundation is great for that. Brow gel keeps my brows in place. Tatouage Couture Liquid Matte Lip Stain stays in place. It doesn’t move. I can drag my microphone across my face and I don’t look like a clown. It just stays put. It’s the perfect lipstick for a performer. When I wear cream lipsticks, I’ve walked on stage before and realized I was red all in my teeth. That doesn’t work really well. #23 is my perfect nude, and #6 is a perfect burnt, mahogany color that I really love.”

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5. She lets herself go through makeup “phases.”

“I didn’t have any sisters or anything like that. My mom wasn’t really into makeup, so I had to figure it out myself. This was before YouTube, so I had to do a lot of studying fashion magazines and looking at pictures that I liked. I got pretty good at it after practicing. I’ve had a couple of phases of makeup. The first was bad eyeliner around the eyes that closed them in instead of opened them up. Then, I after that I went through the phase of very, very matte skin and lips that were way too nude, frosty, glossy, and bright-colored eye shadow that didn’t make any sense. After that, I went through a phase of wearing red lipstick all the time, everyday, always, but it was hard for me to figure it out.”

6. She lets her mascara speak volumes.

“My desert island makeup product is a mascara for sure. Even if you have a clean face and a big smile and some mascara on, you’re looking good kid. I love big, long lashes. Since I love to do a dark eye sometimes it’s a good contrast because it makes it angelic and sweet and inviting, where a dark eye is very much ‘don’t fuck with me,’ ‘don’t come at me,’ ‘don’t get in my way.’ Adding lashes is a way to get a bit of flirt, to get a kick at the end that says, ‘I’m not all that mean.'”